The Crest
by Azurite
Summary: AU: Inuyasha, a captive of a strict and religious village. Kikyou, a miko-to-be finding her own path, while trying to discern good from evil. Destiny binds them, and others together, through life, love, and death... eternally... (CH. 4 UP!)
1. Belief

Crest

Part 1: Belief

An _Inuyasha_ Fanfiction

By Azurite – azurite_moon@yahoo.com

http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon

Rated PG-PG13

Fantasy/Romance

**Author's Notes:** ^^;; If I've said it once, I'll say it a million times—I KNOW I shouldn't be starting another fic again, not without finishing all my others… and that includes both Inuyasha fics as well as Sailormoon, Ranma ½, Peach Girl… to name a few. ^^;; I'm ashamed. But when an idea like this gets into your head, you have to write it… because inspiration doesn't last forever, and I know from experience that just letting something sit on your hard-drive and collect viruses isn't a good thing. ^^;; I keep on sweatdropping because I know _someone_ out there is going to rant at me and say I'm such a procrastinator, but to them and all the flamers out there—BE NICE! Because even if I don't like a fic, I'll find the good points in it, and review based on them, and be helpful, polite, and kind otherwise. If you absolutely hate something, then just… don't say so. Because one otaku's trash is another otaku's treasure. ^^ Also, this is partially based off the excellent (no word suitable enough exists in the English language to describe this fic… I'm just using 'excellent' because it's the first one that came to mind) fanfiction "Turnabout is Fair Play," by Ookami-san. Go read it! I mean… wow. ^^ No other word for it. Wow. 

**Little Stuff:** For starters, I do not own Inuyasha. I had to ask my friend to buy me supper today, so don't even start on money… I have none. This is a not-for-profit, purely fanatic, stark-raving-mad otaku work. I sincerely hope you enjoy… read and review, and be sure to visit my website if you have time. ^^ 

Oh, the other thing is, this starts the entire Inuyasha series FROM the beginning. Since I know the manga better than the anime, that's probably what I'll base it off of… but you should know, this is a Fantasy/Romance, and definitely AU. You are hereby forewarned. 

-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

**In a time long ago**, far too back to be dated precisely by any measure of this day and age, the land was pure and unscathed—that is, from anything that modern inventions could throw at Mother Nature. Humans and animals alike wreaked havoc upon the land, but nothing of much importance scarred Her soils, and so centuries passed without much incident and change in the world.

That was, until the Crest. 

No one, as I said, can pinpoint the exact date… hardly even the year itself is discernable. The roots of the Crest are shrouded in mystery, and so all I can tell is what I know of, what I am sure of that no one can contradict in a sane frame of mind. And those facts are what follows, in my story of a girl… a boy, and the family matters that came between them. 

The Earth has always been covered in more than one form of life—be it flora or fauna, man had no shortage of strange creatures to study, dissect, and spy upon. But never in the history of humanity was there ever a species so nearing the "advanced" level of humans as one—the youkai. Literally translated, the word meant 'demon,' but the creatures described by such a term were hardly deserving of the derogatory expression. True, some were violent and had a taste for blood, but that hardly separated them from some of the most vicious of humans, whose harshest punishment was confinement in a cold dungeon. The torture youkai went through after being discovered by humans was extreme, though it can be said without doubt that not all youkai are alike. 

As animals are divided into species, families, classes, and breeds, so also were the youkai. A youkai derived from an insect species, with its familial roots in the _Lepidoptera_ butterfly order, certainly could not be compared to another insect youkai such as the Hemiptera, violent and often carnivorous creatures with a truly odorous smell about them at all times. Butterfly youkai, though rarer, were all the more gentle and shy; whenever they did appear in front of humans, it was out of curiousity, and never an act of aggression. Still, the young maiden youkai of the Lepidoptera clan were often stolen away to be studied by the high priests and sages of the era, forced into actions which would be considered vile by those of saner mind. And so youkai blood mixed with humans, and centuries of mutual mistrust and dislike between the two species began. 

Hundreds of years into this "study" of the youkai, a young girl was born—a child from a very traditional human family, one that believed the study of youkai was not progress, but tampering with the Gods' ways. It was to invite trouble, they said, by consorting in any manner with those "lower class beings." Though, through studies, much progress had been made in improved communications between the two species—hanyou children, while uncommon, were not as frowned upon in "modern" societies as they had been when the studies of youkai first began. Such children had been outcasts, easily recognizable for their genetic strength and intense mood swings. Not much difference could be told physically between the two species; the most powerful of youkai that were sought after –be them rare and gentle or common and aggressive—had the ability to turn into a human form, and often fool even the wisest of sages. It wasn't until the youkai numbers began to dwindle significantly that they abandoned the idea of fighting humans _as_ humans. Rather, they retained their pure youkai forms, settling for scaring humans into leaving their race alone. 

It didn't work. Aggressive actions against small, helpless villages or poorly armed wannabe heroes were death sentences for nearby youkai people. The more militant governments often extricated youkai and hanyou families from the cities –where they leaved peacefully among other human citizens—and placed them into torturous camps, where many of them lost the ability to live, learn, and grow as they would have anywhere else. 

The child that was born into the traditional family was raised with the belief that youkai were innately evil—that no matter what their initial appearance or attitude, they would only cause harm. How this belief traveled through the generations was never discovered; perhaps it was something simple as a family feud between a youkai and an ancestor. To this day, we do not know. But the rage and hatred against things of the unknown remains, even amongst humans, in this "modern" day and age. The child was kind-hearted though, and lived in a quickly growing village—where youkai were seen often, near the edge of the expansive forest which bordered the village on all sides. 

Families of all sorts lived in this village—other traditionalists, some more extreme than others, going as far as training their children as "taijiya" or exterminators, to kill all things non-human. Even tame rabbits could not be trusted, such families argued. Youkai could shape shift, could deceive and then destroy before a human could so much as raise an arm. They had to be protected. Pets were forbidden in such families, and it was not uncommon to see such radicals or extremists taking arms against families who believed otherwise. Families with youkai servants or slaves were outcasted or chastised by these people, and even those with beloved hanyou friends were framed for criminal acts—all to set about the eventual extinction of the youkai species. 

Likewise, there were also those that welcomed youkai in there home—even those with strong beliefs in the Old Religion. These people offered safe harbor for hanyou and youkai, so long as they maintained a human form at all times. Most of the time, such families and the refugees in them were never found out, and life continued on as normal. 

But in the village where this child lived, normal was an impossibility. Fights between families of conflicting views often broke out, and often death was the result. Children were orphaned, and more and more people grew weary of the constant arguments over a species not their own. Who were they to argue in the stead of a people that could quite obviously speak –and fend for—themselves? 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Kikyou! Kikyou!" A shrill voice called out to the girl. 

The person who spoke stumbled over the knolls blended carefully into a grassy hill, her ebony colored hair sticking in mats to her flushed face. She ran towards a slightly taller girl, with the same shade of hair, but a paler skin tone, and clearer complexion. It was obvious, even from afar, that the child that stood atop the mount, her arms held behind her back in a simple, yet elegant posture, was of a far more mature nature than the younger one. No dirt claimed the pores on her face, no were her knees visible underneath her plain priestess' garb. A small white haori robe, with a hakata skirt of red tied about the waist, all clean and plain in color, became the child named Kikyou. And when she turned, her hair, tied in a neat ponytail at the base of her neck, swished lightly, rather than clumping on a sweat-covered face. 

"What is it, Kaede-chan?" Kikyou asked, a very slight smile becoming her face. At the tender age of thirteen, she was between the point when she would sacrifice her entire being for the Traditions, for the Old Religion that her family believed so dearly in. A single shred of her youth and the life and times it brought her lived on; a faint spark in a darkness quickly closing about her malleable soul.

Kaede, a chubby three year old orphan child who had been taken in by Kikyou's family, one of the more prominent traditionalist families in the village, still retained every bit of her light and youth, all of it beaming out at Kikyou in a simple smile. 

"Papa says you hafta come down to the village for the Deter… Determin… the uh…" 

"The Determination?" Kikyou's face fell into an almost frightened expression; as her family was of a high position of wealth and stability, they were often called upon to settle disputes between other families. In such a case, it was amazing that Father didn't rule in favor of the extreme traditionalists all the time; more often than not, human families who sheltered youkai were spared any sort of horrible treatment after being framed by the extreme families for treason of some sort. 

The Determination was a brief legal ceremony of sorts that was the absolute final decision on all matters concerning intra-village family disputes; it seemed this time that a family had been harboring a young hanyou boy, but had not notified anyone about it. As such, when the hanyou helped out his adopted family by performing incredible feats of strength and agility, they were found out. The family could easily be put to death, just as the hanyou could—but the boy was no older than Kikyou herself, and so there was much dispute on _his_ fate, above anyone else's. 

    

Kikyou, though firm already in her beliefs of the Old Religion and the Traditions she was raised with, often questioned how people could be so willing to die for someone they barely knew; for a person they would no doubt never see for more than a few years, and then would vanish from their life altogether. Kikyou, for her part, saw quite easily why people didn't trust youkai—they freeloaded off the so-called "rebel" families, and then disappeared altogether. For such a brief involvement, families were murdered in their sleep by extremist factions—and children such as Kaede were left as orphans. 

Kikyou was more curious about the hanyou's fate than anyone else's—too often she had seen human children orphaned by extremist factions, but never a hanyou child. As a matter of fact, she had not once in her life _seen_ a hanyou child—only young adults and vicious men. Other children, perhaps, would have had their curiosity piqued as well, had the child been female. Even the extremist families seemed to have reservations about causing the death of a youkai woman or child—especially when she was in her human form. Yet the hanyou in question was male… and all the more interesting to Kikyou, apparently a boy orphaned before he'd come into the village under the protection of the rebels. He was also of a class Kikyou had never seen before—a dog demon. Or so Kikyou heard. As part of her training, she was to witness the Determination. It would be her first ever, and Kikyou could not be more excited. 

Emotions at all were frowned upon in Traditionalist families of power, such as Kikyou's. Yet, that spark within her, lingering from her childhood, remained. She wanted to know more about these creatures, these youkai. Her family hated them so, but why? There were those even more extreme, claiming things about going against the Will of the Gods, and that interspecies breeding was vile and should be condemned. For the most part, Father let Kikyou make up her own mind about such things; the way he'd raised her allowed most of her beliefs to conform along a line quite similar to his own, and there was never any argument. At least, not yet. 

Kikyou followed a jubilant Kaede back down to the village from the grassy knoll overlooking the clearing. From that one point, you could see the mountains far off in the distance, capped by white clouds; a vast plain of yellow-green fields; a blue-green ocean shimmering off to the East, and a mass of dark trees all around the South and West. Youkai lingered in the forest right behind them, yet Kikyou wasn't afraid. No matter how Traditionalist her family's beliefs, and such teachings as how simple contact with a youkai would be the end of her purity, she was never _afraid_ of youkai. For she had been raised with the simple belief that she was superior to them—and so had nothing _to _fear. 

So she believed. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Upon reaching the village, her beliefs could not be shook more. Rather than a simple gathering in the Village Hall, or, when matters required discretion and privacy, as well as absolute security, her family's Meeting Room, it seemed as though the entire town –and even those from afar—was there to witness the fate of the rebel family and the hanyou boy they had been holding. 

Kikyou calmly and quietly took her seat atop the stage, beside her father on the podium. A slightly lower, yet above-ground-level platform was where the two families in question sat—the accusers, a highly extremist family of taijiya known for its hatred of youkai; and the accused, a simple two-person family consisting of a young man and his bride, along with the hanyou boy they'd adopted. 

Kikyou peered anxiously around the platform, searching for the hanyou, but she could not see him. 

Befuddled, she wondered what had happened to the child, and tried to suppress her disappointment. Against her will, she supposed, excitement had grown, blossomed in her stomach at the prospect of meeting a boy –no, a dog hanyou!—refugee who was an orphan. 

Were Kikyou not so stoic, so calm and expressionless in face, she would have been jumping up and down as excited as little Kaede, who sat in the first chair to the right of the stage, sucking her thumb quietly. Yet earlier, the child had been looking about almost frantically, her bright eyes meeting those of everyone else present, giving them a pleasant nod, as she was taught to do by her surrogate family.

Giving in to her regret at not seeing the boy, Kikyou did something she'd never dared to do in public before—she extended her senses, reaching out with her spirit to find one unfamiliar and new to her. As sudden as a lightning bolt in a thunderstorm, it came to her, and then it vanished, as if the holder of the unfamiliar aura discovered her, and retracted his energy around him, tight like a winter cloak, ashamed and angry to have been found out. Or at least, that's what Kikyou imagined such a reaction was. She couldn't really interpret it, because she'd never Extended all that often. When she did, it was under the close supervision of her father, or some other High Priest or Mage. 

Kikyou sat, baffled in her chair, wondering just what she had felt. Perhaps it hadn't been the hanyou boy at all…? However, once Kikyou paid closer attention to the argument at hand that her father was trying to mediate, she realized the boy she searched for was not even among the audience. Whatever she had felt –that jolt of fear inside—hadn't been from a spectator. It truly **had** been from someone inside, or at least, not in sight. Then, when her father sighed, and announced loudly, "Bring the boy out," the energy Kikyou felt earlier appeared, suddenly and powerfully—and it came from a boy being held on either arm by two heavily armed guards. 

White hair fell down to his mid-back in a cloud, a striking contrast to the boy's oversized red kimono. His head was bent so that Kikyou could not see his face –could not see if he appeared to be as afraid as she felt he was—but, prominently displaying themselves from under a thick crop of hair were two very inhuman ears—they were pointed, fur-covered ears, much like a dog's. And Kikyou gasped, delighted. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The entire mess had started out seven years ago. Inuyasha had lived with his family on the far edge of a great forest—even from the highest treetop, all one could see for miles around was trees. Unlike other youkai, who lived in a very conventional manner, preferring caves and treetops to buildings of any sort, Inuyasha and his family lived in a palace. Inuyasha couldn't imagine life any other way—he was proud of his ancestry as the Prince of the powerful Dog Demon clan. True, he had an older brother who had more youkai blood in him, but he'd run away some years ago, and as far as Inuyasha knew, his father had disinherited him. His older brother –older _half_ brother, to be more precise, had been born of his father and a demon consort that had frequented the palace in Father's earlier years, not long after a savage war between the Humans in their Cities, a good distance from this place. 

This forest was a stronghold of youkai, and it had only become so because all demons, of any class, race, and breed, were protected by the Dog Clan. There was but one rule to this infinite protection—and that was that harm to humans would not be tolerated. Many youkai, afraid of the punishment otherwise, and unable to change their beliefs that humans were vile creatures, left the forest. Most youkai remaining either tolerated humans themselves, having consorted with them at one time or another, or were gentle enough not to act aggressively, should humans venture this deep into the forest. It was for the best. 

Though the palace was large, Inuyasha only lived there with his mother and father… and it was a good life. He ate everyday, played, learned, and slept. Such simple things were of the utmost importance to a child like Inuyasha. But when he reached the age of six, everything changed. The youkai that had left the protection of the forest came back—in phenomenal numbers. They had been _kicked_ out of their homes, they said, and wanted to remove the Dog Clan from power. Though Inuyasha lived only with his father, and had nary seen another dog youkai since he was three, and his brother had left, he believed so resolutely in his father's power that the youkai creeping into the forest in steadily growing numbers were of no threat. Inuyasha maintained this peace of mind, while his mother's was not so steady.

She was human—only human, Inuyasha told himself, though his father reminded him everyday that not all humans were cruel. Not all humans liked to dissect youkai, liked to tear apart their families, calling them savage and vile when they were doing the same thing. Not all humans liked to kill. Inuyasha had never had a taste for blood anyway, despite his love of rough-and-tough games with his father as part of his training. Power came unaccustomed to the hanyou, and sometimes it overwhelmed him. He was infinitely proud of being of youkai descent—and tried to ignore those lonely nights when the new moon rose into the sky, black and obscured, and his power ebbed away from him, as termites slowly chip away at a block of wood. For a single night in every month, Inuyasha felt like that piece of wood—like part of him was dying, ever so slowly, and that nothing and no one could save him. Yet every morning after that, he would feel refreshed—as if the Human Night had never happened. It was all just a bad nightmare. 

But of the worst nightmares, he never could have imagined… his own mother's worst fears coming true. Late at night, she'd often expressed fear that the youkai determined to bring an end to the Dog Clan rule would succeed. More often than not, it was Inuyasha convincing her that Father was unbeatable—that he was the Taiyoukai of the Great Western Lands, and all the forests as far as the eye could see. Not humans, not youkai—nothing could stop him! So innocent was Inuyasha at the tender age of six. The youkai that his mother feared so terribly made her nightmare come alive—and they stormed the palace. 

Unexpected was the sheer force of the attack; the sudden rush and stampede of their great numbers. Inuyasha had watched his father die at the hands of a pathetic WOLF demon, of all creatures, and then, with startling realization, came to know that his world had collapsed around him. Inuyasha and his mother barely escaped the palace with their lives; what little strength Inuyasha had compared to his father saved them from the weaker youkai guarding the perimeter of the palace. They escaped into the deep forest that had once been under their protection, and filled only with their allies. 

Now youkai of an untold number and allegiance lurked in the trees, crept in the caves and prowled in the glades. No place was safe for them… no place except a human village. And so away they ran, crossing river and sea, far to the Eastern lands. Inuyasha, of a greater stamina than his mother, arrived at the village which was to be their home, with only tired legs. His mother had not fared so well. Only human, she had contracted some disease on the way there, and suffered greatly from the poisons it had injected into her blood. Inuyasha had tried his hardest, using all that he had learned to help her, but none of it did any good.

He'd prayed to all the Youkai Gods, prayed to all the Human Gods, and wished on all his heart that his mother would get better. Never so much in his life had he cried as he slept—his mother had warned him against sleeping with her, as he might contract the disease as well, and against his will, Inuyasha obeyed these wishes. His heightened senses didn't allow his mother's pained cries to slip past him, and it was rare that Inuyasha ever slept fitfully since the death of his father. 

It was no better in the human village. Disgusted to see a human woman with a hanyou child, many of the villagers shunned Inuyasha's mother, refusing her medical treatment. Inuyasha became envious of the human children playing with their parents, and on more than one occasion had tried to join into their games—only to be cruelly left alone. He always returned to his mother with the best smile he could muster—and in kind, she'd smile back, with all the will she could find in herself. She hated to see her son suffering so, but there was no other option—youkai wouldn't accept her; humans wouldn't accept him. Such was the fate they lived—their benevolent malefactor was deceased in the Great Western Palace miles away from here… and there was no hope anymore. 

Inuyasha tried his hardest everyday to find those kind humans that his father had spoken often of—those humans who cared for youkai and their own kind alike—yet the only one who seemed to fit such a description was his own mother. In response to the innocent, "Mother, do you love me?" Inuyasha's mother would laugh lightly, and press a kiss to the boy's brow. "Of course, my son. Be you youkai, hanyou, or human, you are my son, nothing less, and I will love you until the day that I die and beyond." Such words often upset Inuyasha, since he knew that his mother was ill. He just hadn't expected it so soon… 

"Ofukuro! Ofukuro!" Inuyasha cried, tripping over a few stones. He stumbled back to the embankment just on the outskirts of the human village where he and his mother had been staying the past two weeks. Life was far from perfect here, but it was livable—and now, Inuyasha believed he had found that one human who could help his mother get better. He rushed back to the place where she was always half-sitting, half-lying, but found no trace of her. He searched around for a moment, his amber-colored eyes sweeping the vicinity. 

Timidly, his voice raised an octave, "Ofukuro?"

This wasn't like hide-and-seek. Mother was too ill for that anyway. A sudden fear –and a burning bile- rose in the hanyou's throat, when he saw his mother's hand lying limply on the damp grass. He rushed over to her with a speed that he didn't know he had, his glance falling on a crumbled rice cake at her fingertips. The seaweed wrapped around the sticky rice had a strange white paste on the inside, and upon sniffing it, Inuyasha immediately withdrew his nose, covering his face with his haori sleeve. 

"Ofukuro!" He shook her, grabbed her and forced her to sit upright, but she only fell again, limply on her own lap. It was then that another scent pervaded Inuyasha's senses—that of cold. Cold was more a feeling than a scent, but it seemed so crisp and fresh in Inuyasha's nostrils that it startled him with its intensity—and even more so that it was coming from his mother.

Tentatively, Inuyasha dared to extend his senses and move closer to his mother's form—and when the gross smell became more intense and odorous, the bile rising in the boy's throat came out as a burning vomit. She was dead. 

"Ofukuro…" Inuyasha murmured, his eyes welling with tears. She'd seemed so well this morning… so happy…

The woods around them were silent a moment, as if in mourning. In contrast to the silence, Inuyasha let out a feral, primal cry of despair and rage: "MAMA!!!!!!" 

All was quiet for a moment more, and then Inuyasha's ear twitched. A human—not far away. The crunch-crunch of their strange human 'shoes' could be heard coming—and in this direction. Their scent—familiar, but unable to place immediately—came to the boy, who, with an odd sense of uncertainty, moved towards the fallen rice cake his mother had only halfway eaten. The paste which he had smelled—it reeked of a poisonous flower that Inuyasha had smelled—in the herbalist's shop. 

The crunching of human shoes got louder and louder, and with sickening realization, it all came together—his mother hadn't died of the sickness… she'd been murdered. By her own kind… those she trusted—those FATHER had trusted…! The herbalist… the man who said he'd help Inuyasha and his mother… it was _his_ scent all around here, _his_ scent on the poison paste. He… he'd lied!

"Well, well, my little hanyou, I guess you found out. Too late, though." The herbalist stepped into the clearing where Inuyasha and his mother had been encamped, his face coming into full view. Instead of the kind expression he'd been wearing earlier, his face was a contorted mask of pleasure. He was proud of what he'd done--! 

Inuyasha let out a feral growl, the soft sound growing louder as it made its way up his throat. The herbalist didn't look impressed. He wielded a bow and arrow—a contraption of which Inuyasha had seen before but never understood—until the man, with lightning quick reflexes, drew an arrow from the quiver, slid it along the bow, and aimed it at the boy's head. It shot past him, only missing my a fraction of an inch, as Inuyasha somersaulted to the side and out of harm's way. A mixture of rage and fear boiled inside of the hanyou, his youkai blood struggling to take charge and fight the human who had dared to harm his mother. It was too late to do anything but revenge his mother… who lay cold and motionless, an arrow struck firmly in the ground less than an inch from her knee. 

Another arrow followed the first, and it took the startling sound of a voice not his own –and not his mother's—inside his head, telling Inuyasha with simple clarity to run. He ignored it at first, but as others arrived to assist the herbalist in his execution of Inuyasha, it persisted, growing louder. 

_Run, boy! RUN!_

And he did. He left the coldness of his mother, the sticky poison paste whose vile scent still lingered in his nose, and the herbalist who set to kill him. They gave chase, of course, but were no match for the hanyou's enhanced speed. He lost them after a half-mile, and simply kept running, blindly. 

It was less than a week later that he found himself at a place all too familiar—his old home. But the palace was dark and quiet, and so was the surrounding area. In the two and a half weeks Inuyasha and his mother had been gone, the gardens had grown wildly out of control, and ivy vines crept up the stone walls like snake youkai. 

Inuyasha, fueled with rage and grief, stepped into the palace without fear… and was surprised to see the place abandoned. Completely and utterly empty. He'd expected to see the place littered with bodies, skeletons, or some remains of a horrendous battle. But there was none. In fact, the deeper he went into the palace, the emptier the place got—it seemed as though a shield had prevented the youkai from getting too deep into the palace; many things were just as intact as when Inuyasha'd left them. 

But upon entering the Main Hall—the "Throne Room," as it were, Inuyasha was startled—there was a presence here, and not that of a youkai he recognized. His senses extended immediately, the youkai blood in him surging due to recent events. Human weakness was suppressed by the power flowing through the boy now, at such a young age, and all Inuyasha could be was a demon. It was his only protection. He finally found the youkai that he'd sensed—and he wasn't sure whether to be disgusted or amused. A roly poly mosquito demon lay on its belly near a particularly large mass of rotting flesh… and with a sickening realization, Inuyasha recognized the decaying form of his father's shrinking youkai body. 

To his surprise, the mosquito rolled upright and stared at Inuyasha, not at all surprised to find him standing there. 

"Ah, Inuyasha-sama. Your father left this for you." The mosquito said, tossing something at the boy. Still young, Inuyasha fumbled to catch what the bug had thrown at him, but before he could, there was a great golden flash, and then everything went black. 

When Inuyasha woke up later, the palace was clear, and his head was groggy. He could not remember what he had seen in the room, or why he'd been knocked out… only that that the right side of his head hurt horribly. The palace was awfully cold and lonely, now that Inuyasha thought about it. He'd never seen it as such before, even though the only other people who'd ever occupied it were his mother and father. But now… now, they were gone. Where could he go? 

Surely his father hadn't been all wrong in telling him that kind humans did exist out there, somewhere. Recently, Inuyasha had begun to doubt his father's ideals, considering how those "kind humans" proved that they had to mercy, not even for their own kind. Inuyasha could have bared being alone for a while, as long as the humans could have cared for his mother. But instead, they'd shunned them both, and then, when Inuyasha finally thought he'd found someone willing to help the mother of a hanyou, he found his mother murdered by the same "kind man." 

"I can't stay here…" Inuyasha realized. He cast one faint glance at everything that had ever been imprinted in his mind, his senses extending to the tops of each room. With a few sprints and quick hops, Inuyasha was on the highest turret, overlooking the Western Forest. The humans had extended their territory since he'd been here last. Perhaps that was what had driven the invading youkai out of the palace. Perhaps… just maybe, Inuyasha could find the person who was kind, caring, and tolerant—someone like his mother—in that village on the horizon. 

Perhaps. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

End of Part 1: Belief

I just had to get this all out. It's a whopping 9 pages, typed all at once (without any breaks, except for those to the washroom). I'm amazed. ^^; I have no right to be putting this out for two reasons—I have so much else to do, especially in terms of fic writing and web designing, and certainly not because so many other great fics are out there that you'd be better off spending your time reading. But I just had to write this—and I have to post it, because if I don't, it will turn into gibberish on my hard drive. I just know it. 

So please read and review… and let me know if this is worth continuing. I still have inspiration for it, but I need the motivation to do so. I thank you kindly for your time…

~Azurite

azurite_moon@yahoo.com

http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon


	2. Determination

The Crest

Part 2: Determination

An _Inuyasha Fanfiction by Azurite_

azurite_moon@yahoo.com

http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon

**Author's Notes: As I ranted about in my last chapter (and thank you Silver-sama, Laura-chan, Winter, and Calendar! ;_; *sniff* You guys are so nice…!) I don't take flames. They are signed, stamped, sealed, and delivered "returned to sender." So be nice or say nothing. ^^;; Also, I do not own Inuyasha. Keh. Feh. Or whatever. ^^ Anyone who has read Ookami's "Turnabout is Fair Play" (and by anyone, I mean _everyone)  is either wondering how in the heck my fic could have been inspired by it… so in answer to that… *grin* You'll see. It'll probably diverge so far off Ookami's tangent you won't even see it coming, but when you do get it, I think you'll laugh. _**

**Request: I am looking to make a collection of sorts—quotes from bishounen and bishoujo alike. I originally got quotes from actual animes and mangas that said what a certain character thought of a certain subject. For example, Ranma Saotome on Sex would be: "Uh… doesn't it like mess up your training, or something?" [From the Ranma ½ OAV Series – ep. "The Two Akanes! Ranma, Look At Me!"] But now, I have collected funny quotes from signatures, fanfictions (^^; I'm kinda ashamed to admit it because it makes me look an uber-otaku, and certainly a fangirl/stalker, but most of them are from "Turnabout is Fair Play," and more than one is from LilFoxGirl's "You Make Me Retch." ^^;;; Anyway, I'm looking to collect more quotes of this same kind—**

1) Signature quotes – funny, uplifting, inspiring, or just plain weird quotes from signature files.

2) Bishies On… - quotes from your favorite bishoujo/bishounen on a subject of their choice—only a few lines to a paragraph at the most; as many topics as you wish… but the quoted material must be canon (i.e. from actual anime or manga, and please specify the episiode/manga # / act # in question). 

3) Fanfic Quotes – something that you read in a fanfic that was absolutely funny, incredibly angsty, or totally romantic. Be sure to quote the name of the fic, the author, and what chapter (if applicable) the quote can be found in. 

Domo arigatou, minna-sama!!

**Recap: In the last chapter, we are introduced to a time before youkai and humans fought each other… when in fact, the two races lived together. This integration was not necessarily peaceful, however, as many humans, brought up under the Traditional ways of the Old Religion believed that youkai were lower-class beings, and unworthy of being in the presence of humans. A young miko just beginning to discover herself and her powers finds herself witness at an important ceremony known as the Determination, when families who shelter youkai orphans or refugees are brought up as treasonous by those radical Traditional families, believing in the utter destruction of all youkai. She senses a powerful, yet afraid aura, that of a dog hanyou who was was given sanctuary in the village where she lives by a newlywed family. What will be the fate of the hanyou, and those who gave him shelter… and what will this newborn miko, held to her Traditional beliefs, do at the Determination? **

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Hundreds of years can pass before a people find it within themselves to rise from the depths of despair, and start anew. Wars that last centuries over time, their original meaning and purpose forgotten, continue to be fought even today, whether physically or verbally. 

In this manner, wars were being fought, silent wars that many people refused to be witness to. The stirrings of a battle between the youkai people and the human race was beginning; brewing silently in the darkness of the deeper mountains and thicker forests. One race demanded how another could have the right to determine their worth, hold them up to _their standards. How in the world could one race hate another so much… could they not coexist? But there was that lingering fear of the unknown in both peoples, and so the innate hatred in all humans, passing down from generation to generation, continued. _

And in the village below the forest, in the Great Western Lands of Japan, a young boy persecuted by both races was to have his fate determined by humans. Kind humans, those whom he had searched for seven years, had taken him, an orphan of war and mistrust, into their home. But other families, who held a greater fear of youkai power and the destruction it could bring persecuted this family—saying the boy would be an danger to them all—and so took the matter to the local miko family. Normally, the Traditionalists would rule in favor of the more radical groups, believing themselves that youkai were not nearly as civilized as humans, and not worthy enough to even be pets or servants. Yet this family was different. Until this Determination of Fate, no one new just how different they truly were at heart. 

People who are oppressed begin to fight back, their cause masked by years of mutual mistrust for the opposing party in question. And in this manner, the youkai people, tired of being treated as lower than dust, grew powerful… and fought back, united under a weak banner of freedom. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"The boy is a danger to this village and its people! He must be executed before he can cause any harm!" The leader of the taijiya radical family, the one that brought charges against the kind Nazuna and her groom, stood rigid on the platform in the village square. 

He cast no wavering glances at the sobbing couple at his left side, nor at the audience, murmuring amongst themselves. Even the children of the villagers were sitting on the edges of the large gathering, most of them clumped together, staring at the odd boy hunched over in the couple's side of the platform. 

A hanyou –not a human and not a demon- in an oversized red kimono, with a cloud of white hair falling to his waistline. He had not yet spoken, and it was unlikely he would in this ceremony that would determine whether he would live out the day. It was hard to understand, but to the older children, it was disheartening. No matter what the elders said, the boy didn't _look cruel, and certainly didn't seem like the type to be a danger to the village. After all, the kindest people in town –newlyweds, too, who were often too busy in their newfound lifestyle to pay much mind to others, let alone youkai or hanyou orphans and refugees—had taken the boy in, and had it not been for a slip up in the strength and agility of the boy, he never would have been discovered. _

Kikyou sat silently, her eyes wandering from her adopted sister Kaede to the other villagers—and even those who appeared to have wandered from afar, just for the sake of seeing a true Determination. Among the strangers was an oddly dressed Man of the Cloth—he appeared to be a Buddhist priest of some sort, but what kind, Kikyou couldn't tell. Since her family was so strictly religious in and of itself, she paid no mind to him. Other strangers to the town included a cloaked woman—nothing more of her form could be seen than that—and a child who looked rather strange—nothing too much out of the ordinary, but his eyes seemed just a bit too bright; his face strangely anxious. For a moment, Kikyou wondered if the strange child was a kitsune, or fox demon, as she had heard of in legend. Stories told that they were mysterious little pranksters with the ability to shapeshift into whatever they wished. They were full-blooded youkai through and through, but it was not uncommon to hear of a kitsune hanyou. Far more common than dog hanyou, at any rate.

She turned her attentions back to the Determination. Nazuna was so upset; her adopted son was being persecuted simply for existing, and the new life that she had just gotten used to was on the verge of being destroyed by those who had different beliefs than she. Kikyou mulled over the possible outcomes of this Determination. Despite her family's belief in Traditional ways, they were more lenient than the prosecuting family at this gathering. Not radical exterminators out to rid the world of youkai, Kikyou's family believed that the two peoples were just too different to coexist, and should thus be separated. Would her father really order about the death of a boy no older than Kikyou herself? If he did, Kikyou wasn't entirely sure she'd be able to look at her father in the same way again. 

'But what treacherous thoughts I am having!' Kikyou thought to herself. She hadn't completely crossed the line between a child and a pure miko, whose thoughts were never to leave her duty. Today, the excitement over seeing a Determination ceremony for the first time outweighed her now-instinctive calmness and serenity, though none of it truly showed through her face. 

Far more mature than her little sister Kaede, Kikyou had long since given up the life where getting dirty was a way of life, and to have your hair flying behind you as you traipsed up a grassy hillside was simply a thing that happened. It seemed as if reality had captured the future miko before imagination could, and what little of Pretend Kikyou could remember she relished in the deepest corners of her heart. 

'Why do I sympathize for a hanyou?' Kikyou wondered, her gaze drawn to the slumped-over boy. It had been odd, when she'd Extended her senses and quite immediately _felt the boy. It was more than just sensing his aura—any person of true religion could do that. But Kikyou had felt the turmoil raging in the boy—a suppressed conflict between his human and youkai blood. There was a dark past that called out to the boy, begging to be brought into the light. And then there was the fear. Kikyou had been so taken aback when she felt it, such a bright and powerful unknown in her world that she'd gasped aloud. _

Kikyou's father, at his place on the podium, had cast a glance back at his daughter. Kikyou had the decency to blush, but straightened immediately, and tried to avert her gaze from the boy, wondering what was going on in his mind. Was he so different from humans, after all? Could he truly be a danger? If Kikyou could only see his face, would he be in tears, as his surrogate parents were? Could youkai even cry…?

These questions boiled in the young miko's mind, and the emotions welling in her that she had long since ignored since the Rite of Passing from childhood to adulthood had occurred earlier in the year. She pursed her lips, waiting for something interesting to be said… yet of all the possibilities she could have been mulling over in her mind, not one of them involved the hanyou speaking. 

Yet he did. 

"I'll leave then!" The hanyou stood, an angry expression on his face. As Kikyou had noted previously, the boy was no older than herself, but had an aura about him that spoke of hardships untold… an adult life forced upon the boy when he was not yet ready for it. Kikyou hadn't been paying too close attention to the arguments being shot back and forth, nor her father's silencing commands as he attempted to listen to both sides. Rather, her attention had been focused on the hanyou boy sitting not more than two meters from her, and the incredible turmoil she felt coming from him. Indeed, such angst she had only felt before from a grieving human…

Could it be… perhaps being a hanyou made the boy not _less of a man… but more of one?_

It was certainly a thought to be hold—youkai being _better than humans. But it was true, in more than one respect, and this was why Kikyou believed that humans feared the demons so. There was an innate fear in every creature to be wary of the unknown; the powerful; the new. Humans had been studying youkai for hundreds of years, using them as servants and slaves; pets and companions. Some even lived freely as citizens in certain cities, while others, like this one, were orphans on the run, refugees because no society would accept them. So there was no way to truly say that all youkai were the same, since there were so many different situations. In this way, youkai truly did supercede humans—they could adapt and accept things far faster than the human enigma ever could. _

"Inuyasha!" Nazuna exclaimed in surprise. She stared up at her surrogate son, her bloodshot and red eyes rimmed with tears. 

"So, the demon has a name," The taijiya sneered, barely sparing more than a simple turning of his neck to glare at the boy. The boy only glared back, not lowering himself to the taijiya's level. 

"I do. It was given to me by my mother—" Inuyasha paused, his tongue running over his fanged teeth in an almost feral satisfaction, "A lady of the court—and a full human." 

The crowd burst into excited murmuring—the boy was the offspring of a royal? 

Inuyasha hid the truth behind his slight smile; his mother _was of royalty… but not of humans. That is to say, she was brought to his father's court years and years ago, and had first acted as a maidservant, and later as a courtesan. According to the stories Inuyasha remembered from his youth, his father and mother had met quite by accident—and fallen deeply in love. Since dog demons mate only once in their lifetimes, their love was sealed on a winter night… and Inuyasha's mother climbed the social ladder and became a queen. What her life and been like before coming to the Dog Clan palace, or what circumstances led her to even go to the palace in the first place. It didn't matter. _

Some days Inuyasha was proud of his human heritage, but he had not felt that pride in quite a long time… not since… 

"Regardless--!" The taijiya spoke up, immediately silencing the crowd, "The boy is a danger. Having him wander the forests around the village is no safer than letting him stay in a house with a newborn child!"

"Why you—" Inuyasha stood up once more, enraged at the man's implications. Nazuna quickly grabbed the boy and forced him down, despite the boy's immense strength. He knew, just as well as Nazuna did, that if he provoked the taijiya, it would only sentence him faster. 

"You see! The boy _cannot be trusted!" The taijiya had said nothing else of relevance, nor offered any evidence to support his claims. Everyone determined the course of events by what they saw then and there, and what they heard through the grapevine. _

"Hino Fujia-san, Hino Nazuna-san. Have you claims to make in your favor?" Kikyou's father asked in his calmest voice. However, it was quite clear that he was tiring of the whole event; but there was no way to appease both sides of this incident and get it done quickly. 

"We do, Holy Sir. We found Inuyasha quite by accident in the fields two weeks ago. He was badly injured, possibly by other humans—" Fujia, Nazuna's groom, cast a meaningful look at the taijiya, who only smirked innocently, "Or possibly by other youkai. It is well known that hanyou are not well accepted by either society." 

"And nor should they be!" The taijiya interrupted loudly, standing up. Kikyou's father stared down harshly at the man, and told him in a calm, quiet voice that was his angriest in public, "If you interrupt or shout one more time, Taijiya-san, I will prevent you from ever speaking up in a public hearing again." This was quite the threat to the belligerent taijiya, and so he silenced immediately. 

"…Sir, if we may be allowed to continue?" Fujia asked. A nod was his answer, and so the young man continued to speak. 

"…We treated his wounds as any being would to another—surely one would not leave a broken-legged sparrow in the fields to be eaten by the falcon when he could watch him fly once more?" 

"Sparrows do not have fangs!" One person in the crowd yelled. Fujia didn't turn or acknowledge the comment, but it did set off some murmurings amongst the crowd. As Kikyou looked up, she noticed the throng of people in the village square had increased in number. The strangers that had called her attention earlier seemed to have faded away into the masses, and she could not spot them, even with her Extended senses. 

"…We treated him, and when he came to, it seemed as though he couldn't speak. We fed him some simple meals in the hopes of ensuring his health, and we soon discovered that he was an orphan."

"How did you come about this discovery?" Kikyou's father, as the acting Magistrate asked calmly. Kikyou's voice, had she been the one asking, would have been far more curious; how to pry secrets out of a hanyou who was so afraid? He looked strong enough –though Kikyou wasn't entirely sure whether or not to believe the taijiya that claimed he was such a horrible threat. Perhaps he hadn't been afraid when he'd first met the Hinos…

Fujia was silent a moment, looking to his wife and then his surrogate son. The boy had a look of despair and sadness on his face, surprisingly. Such _human emotions were written so plainly on his face that it startled Kikyou. Her very beliefs were being uprooted from their foundations as she looked on, and nothing of much consequence was truly happening yet! What was this feeling welling in her… this curiosity, sympathy and… something else for the demon boy?_

"…When we asked him if he had parents, he looked sad. Since we had noticed he was of the Dog Clan, which we are all aware was under siege by youkai some years ago, we discovered that he was the Prince of the Dog Clan—the last remaining one, in fact. Yet he is half human, and capable of emotion just as any of us are… he lost his parents when he was only six! He needs guidance, Magistrate, and we cannot leave him alone!"

"The forests surrounding this place are full of youkai. Are you telling me that this boy, supposedly the lost Prince of a Dog Clan, cannot survive amongst them?"

"That is precisely the point, Magistrate! He is _only a boy, and hanyou or not, there is no better way to sure where his loyalty lies than to let him live, learn, and grow amongst humans. He was expelled from his own palace when he was but a child, Sir, and knows no other way of life than running away from what fears him. Sir… he is half-human."_

The Magistrate looked to contemplate this fact for a moment—the boy's youkai rank may not have mattered, but he truly did look human—the only things that spoke otherwise were his pointed dog ears and shocking white hair. For a moment, he turned to glance at his daughter, and realized that his daughter's say in this matter would quite possibly be of value.

"Daughter… what do you think should be done?" The crowd hummed with excitement at the prospect of a mere teenager shaping the outcome of a Determination Ceremony. Kikyou herself was startled beyond belief, and snapped to attention in her chair, rigidly sitting up straight and flushed in face. 

"Father… er, Magistrate?"

"You have insight and wisdom beyond your years, Kikyou. What should be the fate of this half-human, half-youkai boy?"

Silently, the young miko wondered if there was a hidden reasoning in the order of her father's words. Was he a human first and foremost—or perhaps, he had said youkai second, as a reminder to Kikyou?

Surprised, Kikyou looked around at the audience. Their eyes were all trained on hers, and as her gaze swept the audience from the back forward, she noted that of all eyes on her, the ones she felt the most were those of the hanyou's. Bright and golden, she wasn't sure what to make of the stare he riveted upon her face. She could not read his emotions, nor sense what he was feeling. What would he want her to do? How could she ever decide his face after only a few moments of unexpected contact with the boy? 

"I believe," Kikyou began slowly, wetting her lips with her tongue, "That the boy should be placed under the care of a family neutral to both sides of this affair. He would be monitored closely, as per the taijiya's restrictions, but allowed to live amongst us all the same, as per the Hinos request." 

"It is an interest proposition you make, Daughter." The Magistrate said after a moment, thoughtfully rubbing his chin. It appeared that he didn't know his daughter as well as he thought, for her suggesting such a thing hadn't been on the forefront of his mind when he'd asked her opinion in such a matter. 

"Perhaps," Kikyou continued, taking her father's silence as a cue to elaborate further, "He could be better…" Her choice of words was limited, and saying the first word that came to mind felt strange, "controlled by… other means. Means that would not cause him to lose face so much as slavery."

The Taijiya looked downright infuriated at the suggestion that the hanyou wouldn't be killed, or at the least, exiled. He moved up to say something, but to question the word of the Magistrate's daughter –a future miko and protectoress of the village, no less—let alone the Magistrate's word himself… well, it was to ask for the very death that the taijiya delivered to youkai on a regular basis. 

"What means do suggest, Daughter?" The Magistrate asked, a smile creeping onto the corner's of his mouth. He had some semblance of an idea what she was suggesting—and she was correct, since the means of control which she seemed to be proposing would be far better than enslaving the boy. At any rate, the Magistrate did not want to have the death –whether directly sentenced or indirectly—of a young boy, hanyou or no, on his conscience. He had to live somehow, but it would not be easy to "integrate" him into their society. Stories told of cities that thrived with other youkai, but the village was not a city… and while considered progressive, this was a dangerous matter which they treaded upon, one that had to be considered from all angles. 

"A rosary, Magistrate," Kikyou smiled, withdrawing one from her robes. With the grace of her nature, she walked down the stage, and upon her father's nod, placed the ring of beads around the boy's neck. He looked at her strangely for a moment, seeming –just for a second- grateful for her intervention, because despite the taijiya's already poor attitude, the general fear of the people in the village was plain. And the Hinos were right—he couldn't survive in the forest. Prince or no, hanyou or no, the very fact that he was related by blood to the demons that the youkai now occupying the forest had worked so hard to overthrow would mean his death. His clawed fingertips wrapped around the rosary slightly, surprised when a strange force brewed about the beads, as if daring him to try and remove it. 

Inuyasha didn't fully understand human magicks or science, but he knew it was generally dangerous to youkai. Though he was half human, the question remained—was this girl doing this for her own benefit—or his protection, as she claimed? 

"A simple subduing word will prevent him from causing harm, should he lose control. He is a mere boy," Kikyou said, unaware of the harsh glare the hanyou shot at her for that remark, "And can easily be taught the ways of Tradition."

"The very ways which speak against youkai integration in a society such as ours?" A revered elder who had remained silent throughout the entire Determination ceremony now spoke. Kikyou looked at him. 

"I have found it so that if cultures are _unwilling to adapt, stuck in such things as tradition, others will dominate them, and they will die out. Concessions must be made, in the name of the future. Surely such a simple concession allowing the boy to stay here is not a sin. After all, he is part human, and therefore falls under the creation of our Gods." _

Kikyou's reasoning was so clear and logical that it sent the crowd into another series of murmurings. She was an intelligent, if odd miko. What sort of girl raised in the Traditional ways would suggest such a thing as this?

"Do both sides agree to this?" The Magistrate asked. 

"Before we do—" The Taijiya spoke, doing his very best to control what was doubtless anger and rage simmering just below his browline, "What family will care for him? Surely you do not expect us to believe that he will be… _properly monitored in a family such as the Hinos? They are so blinded by their naivety that they do not recognize potential danger when it is in their own household." _

The Hinos should have been insulted by the taijiya's remark, but remained silent. The Magistrate balled a concealed fist underneath his voluminous sleeves, but nodded. He turned to Kikyou, wondering just whom she'd had in mind. Unaware of the smile that blossomed on his daughter's face, he was taken aback when she said, "Why our family, of course." 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As the proceedings ended, Kikyou felt rather satisfied with herself. Her first Determination, and she had played a very active role. She felt proud of herself spiritually for saving a potential spirit, and no matter what her Traditions spoke of against demons, this boy was such a curiosity, such an absolute gem that Kikyou would not have his "punishment" be any other way. The Hinos were left scott-free, luckily, for their only crime had been nourishing a sick soul. 

The taijiya wasn't entirely pleased, but it was enough to silence him for a good while, especially since his claim had been refuted by the very Magistrate due to the exterminator's belligerent and outspoken behavior earlier.

When the crowds were filing away, Kikyou stood next to a few select council members, only a few feet from Inuyasha. His feelings were not so concealed now; the sadness and despair still lingered in the recesses of his mind; that dark past glimmered slightly, muffled by a larger emotion which Kikyou could not decipher. 

When the crowds had thinned considerably, the boy let out a low growl at the young miko who believed she had just saved his life. 

"You should have let me leave." 

"What? And let you be devoured by the demon in that forest?"

"I'm not a thin-skinned human, I can take care of myself." 

"Why--! I just saved your life, you know. That Taijiya easily could have convinced the Magistrate to have your head as a trophy."

"Why did you bother stopping him?!" Inuyasha demanded, glaring at Kikyou. His face was mere inches from here, the rage in his eyes so incredibly clear that she stumbled backwards, fear rising in her heart. This boy… perhaps he truly wasn't as she'd imagined…

"You… you _wish to die?" Kikyou asked slowly, shaking her head. "No, you are half-human, and whether you are proud of it or not, I saw __emotion in your eyes. You aren't as unfeeling as you make yourself out to be."_

"And how would _you know, wench? Are you my mother?" _

Kikyou stared, angered yet silent. How could the boy say that? His mother had been—

"No," Kikyou responded finally, softly. "Nor do I wish to be. I only wished to prevent the torture of a boy who has not yet seen life as it can be… as worth living as it is." And with those words, Kikyou walked off, leaving the hanyou boy standing alone, a rosary about his neck, and only the Hinos behind him to restrain him in any manner. 

"You made quite an impression on the Council, today, Kikyou-chan." A voice spoke. Kikyou turned, surprised, to the sound of the voice.

"Cousin Naraku!" 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=   

End of Part 2: Determination

*grin* Hehee… well, you still have yet to figure out what I mean by TIFP inspiring me… and I make no claims one way or another regarding any possible [future] pairings in this story. I will only say that this will be *long,* but I plan on continuing writing it, as often as I can, as long as I have the inspiration and motivation to do so. 

I thank you, kind reader, for getting this far, and do hope you leave me some comments… feedback is good for the soul, which is true for both parties! =)

So, how'd you like this chapter's ending? ^^ 


	3. Growing

**The Crest  
_Part 3:_ Growing  
An _Inuyasha Fanfiction   
_By:_ Azurite_**  
azurite_moon@yahoo.com  
http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon  


**Author's Notes: **

(1) A reviewer pointed out to me that _youkai_ directly translated refers to a magical being or spirit that uses energy for evil. I was wondering how true this was, considering Takahashi-sensei seemed to be portraying many youkai as 'good' or simply 'non-evil.' And, according to my University of Monash dictionary, 'youkai' means-- ghost; apparition; phantom; spectre; **demon**; monster; goblin. It's that third to last definition I was aiming for. Japanese, like English, has many words for the same thing. Likewise, many of the same words/characters can be read differently. There is a difference between _translation_ and _transliteration_. Take, for example, 'Inuyasha.' You can call him 'Inuyasha' or you can call him 'Dog Demon.' Take your pick. Actually, to be more precise, the characters used to form the word 'yasha,' actually translate to _female demon_… hmmm… go figure. ^.~ 

(2) As I ranted about in my last two chapters, I don't take flames. They are signed, stamped, sealed, and delivered "returned to sender." So be nice or say nothing. ^^;; 

(3) Also, I do not own Inuyasha. Keh. Feh. Or whatever. ^^ 

(4) Anyone who has read Ookami's "Turnabout is Fair Play" (and by anyone, I mean _everyone) is either wondering how in the heck my fic could have been inspired by it… so in answer to that… *grin* You'll see. It'll probably diverge so far off Ookami's tangent you won't even see it coming, but when you do get it, I think you'll laugh. _

**Request:**

I am looking to make a collection of sorts—quotes from bishounen and bishoujo alike. I originally got quotes from actual animes and mangas that said what a certain character thought of a certain subject. For example, Ranma Saotome on Sex would be: "Uh… doesn't it like mess up your training, or something?" [From the Ranma ½ OAV Series – ep. "The Two Akanes! Ranma, Look At Me!"] But now, I have collected funny quotes from signatures, fanfictions (^^; I'm kinda ashamed to admit it because it makes me look an uber-otaku, and certainly a fangirl/stalker, but most of them are from "Turnabout is Fair Play," and more than one is from LilFoxGirl's "You Make Me Retch." ^^;;; Anyway, I'm looking to collect more quotes of this same kind—

1)   Signature quotes – funny, uplifting, inspiring, or just plain weird quotes from signature files.

2)   Bishies On… - quotes from your favorite bishoujo/bishounen on a subject of their choice—only a few lines to a paragraph at the most; as many topics as you wish… but the quoted material must be canon (i.e. from actual anime or manga, and please specify the episiode/manga # / act # in question). 

3)   Fanfic Quotes – something that you read in a fanfic that was absolutely funny, incredibly angsty, or totally romantic. Be sure to quote the name of the fic, the author, and what chapter (if applicable) the quote can be found in. 

Domo arigatou, minna-sama!

**Vocabulary:**

I'm fairly sure I only use the most common terms, and considering the only 'dub' of Inuyasha that is out is the Viz Manga, well… here are some words:

**_hanyou_** – half-demon. Literally, a contraction of the word _hanyoukai_, with _han_ meaning 'half' and _youkai_ meaning 'demon'. Normally refers to any demon whose parentage is mixed between that of a full demon (a _youkai_) and a human.  
**_miko_** – priestess. Normally refers to a woman of the cloth (similar to a nun, but with more power) from the Shinto religion, like Kikyou, Kaede, etc. Shinto no miko are supposed to be able to detect unnatural energy (such as that of youkai) and purify them with their powers.  
**_taijiya_** – exterminator. Literally _taiji_ is 'to exterminate' and _ya_ implies a store or person who performs the action. Essentially, this means that a _taijiya_ is an exterminator. Usually refers to the exterminators of demons, though certain kinds of demon exterminators are not exactly _taijiya_. For example, Miroku… he's a Buddhist priest who expels demons… not exterminates them.   
**_houshi_** – Buddhist priest: like Miroku. At the time when Inuyasha takes place, Buddhism wasn't too common—but it was spreading, from where it originated in India to China, and then to Japan. Miroku is no doubt one of the people spreading the word about Buddhism, which emphasizes non-material possessions (explains why, aside from greed, Miroku always sells whatever he "steals" from the houses that he expels evil spirits from) and a life away from wealth.  
**_-sama_**, **_-chan_**, **_-dono_**, **_-san_** – Respectively, varying suffixes that one attaches to someone's name (usually the family name, or last name) to add respect. To not add a suffix implies (depending on the people) disrespect, or a very close relationship. Even brothers and sisters refer to each other with –san or –chan attached to their name. In Inuyasha, since it's 500 years before Kagome's time, many suffixes aren't in use, such as –san. That is why Kagome and Miroku respectively refer to each other as (insert name here)-sama. –Sama is a suffix that implies great respect to a person of power, which can include religious figures, monarchs, or government officials. –Chan, on the other hand, implies affection –either between friends or lovers. –Dono is a very old suffix, used in the same way –san is—it is interchangeable between girls and boys, and is usually used towards someone older than the speaker. It implies respect, or a lower position.  
**_hakama, haori_** – The first word is the bottom portion of a kimono robe, like what Inuyasha wears. It is also the same kind of pleated pants-dress that mikos (such as Kikyou and later, Kaede) wear. Haoris are the inner robe (usually white) that are worn underneath the overcoat.  

**Recap: **

Kikyou is a teenage miko-to-be with an opportunity like no other in her village—the chance to witness the fate of a hanyou orphan taking refuge in the house of two newlyweds in the village, youkai sympathizers by the name of Fujia and Nazuna Hino. Radicals in the village, who believe that all youkai should be exterminated, regardless of any human blood in them, press charges against the family, and since Kikyou's father, as the Magistrate of the village, is to decide the fate of the boy in a ceremony known as the Determination, Kikyou is also present. However, Kikyou doesn't expect her father to ask her opinion—and when she does suggest something, it may be for better or for worse! The hanyou _Inuyasha_ is now placed in her family's care, as the neutral party. Inuyasha, now under the control of a mystical rosary, can choose to fight or surrender to Kikyou… What's more, Kikyou's decision was looked on as rather unprecedented, and the Council of Elders commends her for it—or rather, one particular member does… a Cousin "Naraku…" 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"You made quite an impression on the Council, today, Kikyou-chan." A voice commented. Kikyou whirled around, the frustration --that had built up after her brief confrontation with the dog hanyou whom she'd saved from the wrath of a family of radical taijiya—simply vanishing.

"Cousin Naraku!" The young man smiled jubilantly and embraced the young girl, pulling her tight into his embrace. Kikyou tried to ignore the sheer pressure of his fingers on her back, and soon found a way to smile through her grit teeth as she pulled away. 

"You have not been in the village for so long. What is the reason for this joyous occasion?" Kikyou smiled. The two of them began walking towards the largest house in the village—the House of the Magistrate, Kikyou's father and the highest presiding member of the Council of Elders. He was not the oldest man in the village, but he had the most power, being a priest of the Old Religion, and adhering to the ways of the Tradition as firmly as one could. 

"I was asked to return to serve on the Council of Elders," Naraku smiled, white teeth glistening in the daylight. Kikyou shivered, if briefly, at his smile, and turned away. She quickly disguised the sudden frown that had crossed her face; it was a strange, cold feeling in the pit of her stomach, and why such a feeling would come from contact with her old cousin… well, it was beyond her. 

"Would you be staying at our house then?" Kikyou asked, reaching the doorway of her home. She'd been out all day since dawn to begin with; if Naraku had appeared in mid-morning, then it was entirely plausible that a room had already been laid up for him in the upper floors. 

"Unfortunately no, my dearest," Naraku smiled, raising Kikyou's hand and pressing his lips to her knuckles, "I am to be staying at Tsubaki-sama's house. It seems I will be taking his place on the Council." 

Kikyou, who had been cringing ever so slightly at the sensation of her cousin's lips on her skin, stared, wide-eyed at him now. The young man, fair of face, with enough wind-waved dark hair to rival Kikyou's, cocked his head in curiosity. 

"What ails, you, Cousin?" 

"…Tsubaki-sama has been on the Council since… since before I was born… he… he never told me that he would be leaving us…" In her shock, Kikyou stared, confused, at the doorstep of her house, entirely missing Naraku's scowl. 

"…It seems rather sudden, but the man is getting old… he would be of further use to his family, don't you think?" Naraku smiled, a dark and chilling smile that Kikyou dared not to understand. This was all too much… Tsubaki had been on the Council for so long… giving advice to Kikyou's father as one would to a son. Long ago, Tsubaki himself had been the Magistrate, but had long since retired from that position, instead taking the place of a revered elder on the Council. So long had he been serving there that Kikyou had never thought her teacher would step from the stage, and into the shadows. Only last morning they'd had lessons… 

"…I suppose… but then, who would teach me in the Ways of the Old Religion?" Kikyou stared up at her cousin, her eyes watering. She knew emotion was frowned upon, especially in a miko-to-be such as herself… but to hear that the man who was almost as close to her as her Grandfather… who taught her how to channel her energy and tap into the Spirits… how could he simply drop himself from that place? 

'I have no right to judge… Cousin Naraku is doubtless correct… Tsubaki-sama is old… perhaps even sick…!' The thought terrified Kikyou, and she suddenly realized how out-of-control her emotions had been as of late. What was wrong with her…?

"…Perhaps I will take over as your sensei, ne?" Naraku laughed as they parted ways, leaving Kikyou staring at the back of her cousin in confusion and… fear. Something was terribly wrong.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Inuyasha paced between the platforms and the line of chairs that had, only five minutes previous, been occupied by a group of stodgy old men, calling themselves the Council of Elders. Bah. Preposterous. That a group of humans –who barely knew him—could judge him, and determine his fate…

Yet… it seemed as though that girl –who had dared to try and reach his soul—dared to try and find out what was boiling in the depths of his heart, had saved him. Thoughtlessly. It was strange. Inuyasha had long since given up the idea that there was a person –a human- who could truly be kind. No human alive was unafraid of youkai or hanyous in some respect… and even the Hinos, a newlywed couple just beginning to test their beliefs and break away from the mold of the old world, held some fear. 

A deep part of Inuyasha whispered that when Nazuna had cried earlier, it had not been for his sake—for the fact that he'd been restrained by other humans, his fate to be determined in a publicly humiliating session, all because of some radical taijiya that feared him more than they respected him. But why should they—the power Inuyasha wielded from his youkai blood was more than the taijiya ever could possess… and they were jealous. Such jealousy fueled anger, and anger blossomed into hate… 

Humans were so complicated, Inuyasha grouched to himself. So silly. He anxiously tugged at the rosary around his neck, wondering what sort of hidden power the miko-child had bestowed upon it that so pleased the taijiya and the Hinos. 

"Inuyasha…" Nazuna whispered, her husband's arm lending a comforting support to her shoulders, "I am so sorry… we never would have thought…" Her sentence trailed off. Never would have thought that they would have been discovered, harboring an orphan hanyou boy. In a village of taijiya radicals and Old Religion Traditionalists, at that…

"It is good that Kikyou-sama was allowed a voice in this Determination," Fujia murmured finally, a grim expression on his face.

"How so?" Inuyasha practically growled, struggling with the beads once more, "That wench has literally wrung a leash around my neck!"

To his surprise, Nazuna let out a slight giggle. 

"What in the seven he—"   
"Inuyasha!" Nazuna's face immediately became serious once more, correcting the young hanyou on his improper language. For the two weeks he'd stayed with them, Nazuna had been nothing but kind and helpful to him, though he found some of her human habits –such as this one—quite irritating. 

"It could have been much worse without Kikyou-sama intervening as she did. I was surprised that the Magistrate even asked her opinion, but I suppose it because she grows in her power, and will soon take over as Miko." 

"A damned priestess…!" Inuyasha seethed. He had no mind to be taught the ways of some hokey human religion, Old or Traditional, or whatever… or not. He'd been fine on his own, and if he hadn't been so… so damned foolhardy and cocky, he wouldn't have gotten attacked by that strange youkai in the forest… wouldn't have been found by the Hinos…

"It isn't so bad, Inuyasha, really. She's your age, and seemed to be quite understanding of your situation…" 

"'My situation?' She's a damned… a damned _wench_ and a miko, no less!" Inuyasha sighed, not liking the saddened expression that became his surrogate mother's face. He was trying so hard to place the blame on someone other than himself, and such actions were only upsetting his caretakers more. Or rather, his former caretakers. The wench had ensured that he wouldn't be staying with them any longer, and for some reason, the thought of not seeing Nazuna's face, delighted as she found her home cleaned every day, fresh water in the buckets, troubled Inuyasha. 

He sighed grumpily. "I suppose… I suppose I could get used to it. There would be no point in running away now, would there?" Inuyasha knew, just as well as the Hinos, that he could try to—at this very moment. He didn't exactly know how rosaries worked, but he was sure that the spell that was on the beads was not as strong was it could be. If he ran, it was doubtless anyone –even those idiotic taijiya—could catch up to him. 

Yet it would feel like betrayal. The miko-girl had said "I saw _emotion_ in your eyes. You aren't as unfeeling as you make yourself out to be." Could it be true? Perhaps it was impossible to find that one human –so much like his mother—that would be accepting and unafraid of him… so instead, that human was forming inside him. The idea wasn't as repulsive as Inuyasha would have expected. 

"No, Inuyasha!" Nazuna smiled, delighted at her surrogate son's change of heart. He was a strapping young lad, with so much life left in him, yet when he'd been found out and taken away, placed in confinement in the Magistrate's home earlier that day, he'd seemed so despairing…

"Nothing would be stopping you from seeing us everyday, I'm sure…" Fujia put in, grinning. Inuyasha managed a faint smile. Perhaps… perhaps he could get used to this life. If Fujia and Nazuna accepted him, then maybe that Miko girl would as well. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Naraku ran his fingers across the volumes of old and sacred book in the old man's library. Everything he had told Kikyou only moments before had been true—that indeed, he'd been called to take the place of Tsubaki on the Council of Elders. He was no older than 17 himself, and certainly not worldly enough to be considered an Elder… but none of that mattered. 

Surely, the Oracle could not be wrong. 

Indeed, the Oracle had called to Naraku, whispered delicious thoughts of power and strength into his yearning mind. Naraku, who had no real family to speak of, save the young cousin named Kikyou and her tired old father, smiled. 

"Naraku!" A harsh, aged voice interrupted the young man's search, and he wheeled around immediately, dark robes rumpling as he spun. Naraku turned to face Tsubaki, the old man leaning on a withered old cane, and smiled maliciously.

"Tsubaki-sama… what a surprise." Naraku murmured, his voice coated in sweet sarcasm. The old man took an unsteady step backwards as his wrinkled, dark eyes met Naraku's. The boy was not to be trusted, and as the oldest member of the Council, he knew that better than anyone. When Naraku had first appeared in the village, Tsubaki had known it was of no good… 

"What are you doing in the Sacred Libraries? This place is off limits—especially to you!"  
"Why, Elder, I am shocked… you would refrain your own protégé from reading the texts which are to become his?"

"You're a damned fool, Naraku, if you think you're going to be removing _me_ from my office anytime soon." Tsubaki hissed, a slight smile creeping up the corners of his withered old mouth. 

With speed inhuman, Naraku shoved the old man up against the wall, both of them clearly struggling. With a strange sort of strength that didn't belong in a person of his age, Tsubaki shoved the younger boy off his neck, stumbling backwards a bit and catching his breath.

"You will never get what you want, Naraku. I will see to it." And with those words, Tsubaki left the room. He no longer seemed afraid that Naraku was in the library… for whatever Naraku was searching for, it was obviously beyond his reach. 

"…And it shall be the death of you…" Naraku whispered solemnly, his eyes alighting with a strange, sourceless light.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When Inuyasha was finally escorted to the Magistrate's house by the Hinos, it was near sunset. Though the Determination had been in the early afternoon, Inuyasha had helped the Nazuna's clean up the room they'd set aside for him. Though he hadn't had many belongings to call his own, he had been given a better fitting –and still bright red—kimono from Fujia, and allowed to sleep on a futon. It hadn't been the most comfortable, but far more than Inuyasha had been privileged to receive in the past several years. 

"It won't be the same without you here, Inuyasha." Nazuna smiled sadly, wiping her eyes. 

Rather embarassed as he did so, Inuyasha drew the human woman into his embrace. Her arms wrapped immediately around the hanyou, holding him tighter and stronger than Inuyasha thought possible for a human woman of her stature. 

"Keh. You two weren't expecting to find me, anyway, so now you have one less mouth to feed." 

Fujia and Nazuna looked at Inuyasha with raised eyebrows, almost leaning forward on their feet, wondering if they would hear the cocksure hanyou boy actually say 'Thank you.' 

"Besides, didn't you two say you wanted to try and have a… a whelp?" Inuyasha fumbled for the proper word, having never been around humans in such a society before. Fujia began chuckling, while Nazuna stared, her face blank. 

"Baby, Nazu-chan! He means baby!" At this explanation from her husband, Nazuna started to laugh too, while poor Inuyasha stood, blushing. He'd never understand humans. Far too complex. 

"We hope so, Inuyasha. And when we do… we would be honored if you would be our child's brother." 

At this unexpected request, Inuyasha stumbled. A brother…? Him? Sure, he had an older brother, but Inuyasha hadn't seen, let alone heard from him in so long… the half-brother born of Inuyasha's father and another demon, by the name of Sesshomaru had run away from home when Inuyasha was but a pup himself… he couldn't even remember his face. 

"…I…" 

"_When_ we do, Inuyasha. You will have time to consider." The two shifted, indicating their need to return home soon. 

"I…" Inuyasha began, staring at his bare feet. With such crude and rough toenails, he looked out of place on the stone walkway. While Fujia and Nazuna both wore sandals and drab colored kimonos, Inuyasha stood out like a flame in the wood. 

"Thank you." He said gruffly, attempting to turn away. He stole one last glance at Nazuna and Fujia, who drew Inuyasha into an unexpected hug. For just a moment, Inuyasha held them back, withholding his full strength, for fear he might actually hurt his former caretakers. 

"Good luck, Inuyasha. Be well." The Hinos turned and didn't look back, as Inuyasha stood, staring after them, from the Magistrate's walkway. He was unaware that he was being watched himself, from a window high above him—violet eyes set in a young woman's face widening in surprise. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"Ah, Inuyasha." The man clad in simple, yet finer clothes than the Hinos, greeted Inuyasha as he practically threw open the door to the Magistrate's house. Inuyasha scowled a bit; the one thing the Hinos had taught him was how humans referred to each other with respectful suffixes at the end of their names.

'I suppose I'm not deserving enough of one, then.' Inuyasha grumbled to himself. 

"Kikyou-sama has requested that you be suitably presented to her… so we will bring you to the bathing room—"

"Are you saying I'm not clean enough as I am to be presented to her worshipfulness?" Inuyasha sneered, leaning a bit close to the servant. The man leaned back, his nose upturned in something resembling disgust. Inuyasha masked the growl threatening to crawl up his throat, and relaxed onto the balls of his feet. 

"…I-If you please… Inuyasha-dono…" The servant stuttered, turning to a room with large bamboo screens in front of it. Small trails of steam came from the room, indicating that it was the bathing room that the man spoke of. Inuyasha wasn't entirely pleased with the prospect of bathing in a strange house; it had been uncomfortable enough bathing with Fujia his second night with them. He'd gotten used to it of course, and then bathed on his own. He had for years, just never in a human household, and certainly not in hot water. Rivers and springs had always been suitable for the hanyou on the run… and if his scent didn't irritate his highly sensitive nose, than it shouldn't bother any _humans_. 

Inuyasha made a sound similar to that of a grunt, and moved towards the room. As soon as he entered, however, the servant simply closed the blinds and walked away—as if expecting Inuyasha to know what to do. 

Upon first entering the house, Inuyasha had to contain a fair amount of anger—the Hinos had been such kind people to him, but had to struggle in the fields every day and return to a small, cold home. Made of mortar and straw paste, and hardly as fanciful as this place—with a steaming hot tub of water big enough for eight people, bubbling merrily in the center of the room. 

Inuyasha snorted as he undressed, kicking his hakama to the side, and then shimmying out of his haori. He felt more than a mite uncomfortable, strangely enough, in a human household, bathing because some idiotic human girl wanted him to be 'presentable.' He snorted once more, sliding into the water.

His nose immediately reacted to the sudden onslaught of perfumes that filled the water, but he soon got used to it, however itchy his nose felt. He paddled his way through the rub, allowing his stiff muscles to relax. He'd done a lot of work for the Hinos in his stay with them, mostly lifting heavy objects and the like. The work hadn't bothered him at the time, but now it seemed, without regular 'practice,' the pain was catching up to him. 

Unlike in the rivers, when he was forced to use pine needle branches as sponges, this place was well-equipped—the water was being heated by a decent-sized flame underneath the tub, keeping the water constantly warm, though not boiling; there were various sized cloths and sponges lining the walls, and a myriad of bottled liquids –which, upon further inspection, turned out to be strange scented gels.

Inuyasha dared to test some of them out, pleasantly surprised to find a musk-scented one among the mixture. He rubbed the stuff over his skin and watched it bubble in the water. He had a vague idea that he should have used the stuff _before_ he'd come into the tub, but it didn't matter. It wasn't as if he'd wanted to take a stupid bath for a stupid girl anyway…

Yet… what was the harm in enjoying it while he was here?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"_What_ is taking that blasted hanyou so long, Shouchi?" Kikyou demanded. She was pacing about the Reception Chambers with an almost nervous twitch to her arms, which she held intertwined behind her back. With every step, her broad hakama threatened to trip her, as she no longer wore the elevating geta sandals that she wore outside of the house. 

"M-Mistress Ki-Kikyou-sama… he… I do... I do not know how he could be taking so long in the bathing room… when I spoke with the Hinos, they gave me the impression that he was at least somewhat cultured…"

"And what defines 'cultured' in this house?" A sarcastic voice came from the doorway. There, leaning against the doorframe as if he'd been there all along, was Inuyasha, a smirk becoming his fanged smile. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The evening had passed without too much incident—other than Inuyasha and Kikyou getting into a heated argument. Inuyasha realized later on, somewhat gratefully, that the priestess, even while inflamed in her anger, had forgotten to enchant the rosary he still wore about his neck. 

"I'll be damned if I let that bitch subdue me…" Inuyasha muttered, turning over on his futon. One thing he could be pleased about though, was that he wasn't being treated like trash in this household. Of course, the next day had yet to come… 

Inuyasha eventually fell into a troubled sleep that night, his white hair pooling over the pillow that had been supplied for him, and onto the floor. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The next day, or rather, the next morning, Inuyasha was unceremoniously awoken by a sharp kick to his side. Angrily, he got opened his eyes and growled, half expecting to find himself out in the forest, some pathetic kitsune at his side.

Rather, he was tangled amongst a series of human blankets and sheets, rather warm, and was being kicked by a young miko with an angry expression on her face. From what Inuyasha could make out, it was barely past daylight, as a simple gray haze filtered through the windows on the side of the room. 

"What do you want, wench?" Inuyasha grumbled, tossing onto his side. For that remark, he received an even sharper jab to his side, prompting him to shoot bolt-upright and growl –loudly- at Kikyou, between curled lips. 

"So the dog _does_ have fangs," Kikyou smirked with a laugh, "Does he know how to perform tricks, as well?"  
"Why you—"  
"Say it, and that rosary around your neck will be that much more powerful when I enchant it."  
Inuyasha quickly fell silent, his growl quieting to a soft snarl.   
"Do not think I have forgotten; in the ways of my Tradition, I refuse to let my emotions govern me, and so I didn't think it fitting for your… restraint to be placed last night, when I was in rage. You probably would be dead if I had."  
"You're awfully full of yourself, aren't you, wench?"  
"Call me that one more time, and I assure you, you will know just how 'full of myself' I am." 

Inuyasha smirked, but said nothing. 

"I am leaving for my morning training. Father has made it a point to suggest that we are to go together… however, should you interrupt my session in any way, or dare to run—"   
"You don't need to tell me twice, _Kikyou-sama_." Inuyasha grouched. Kikyou stopped, smiled faintly, and went downstairs without another word. 

Inuyasha kicked the sheets off his legs, and whispered softly to himself: "She smells nice." 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Inuyasha trudged up the hill on the outskirts of the village, a sizable distance behind Kikyou. The thoughts in his mind from the previous night—that he could simply put on a burst of speed and run—still haunted him. Yet Kikyou seemed to be having a very strange effect on him.

Perhaps it had been something in those salves and gels yesterday in the bathing room. Surely, that had to be it… no _human_ girl could be affecting him in this way…

Inuyasha snorted to himself, unaware that Kikyou stole a glance back at him, her eyebrows raised in wonderment. He seemed human enough, but with the mannerisms of a dog. He'd fascinated her when she'd first seen him, and now… now… he was still an interesting specimen. Had anyone told her far in advance that she was to become the caretaker of a dog hanyou boy, she would have scoffed and said the hanyou would never accept subjugation—and by a miko girl, no less. 

Inuyasha stared at his bare feet as they crushed the soft, moist grass on the hill, startled when he bumped into Kikyou. 

"What's wrong with you?" Inuyasha growled, expecting an explanation for why Kikyou had simply stopped. She didn't answer at first, and Inuyasha came from behind her, noting that her face was awfully pale. Her violet eyes were fixated on a person in the distance, near the edge of the forest.

Whoever she'd been here to meet for her morning training, it certainly wasn't him. 

'No… Naraku had to have been lying… Tsubaki… you couldn't possibly have let Naraku take over my training… have you?' 

Kikyou took several small steps forward, her feet wobbling quite plainly. Inuyasha didn't know the man she was approaching, and Kikyou made no attempt to enlighten the hanyou towards her situation, yet she seemed aware, on some level, that Inuyasha sensed her reluctance in moving forward. 

"Cousin Naraku… Good morning to you." Kikyou said in a purposefully slow voice. When the young man turned to face the miko-to-be, his eyes narrowed. The hanyou was with her.

The unpleasant expression donning the young Councilman's face quickly faded, but Inuyasha had caught it—and what's more, had sensed the _youki_ around him. He made a soft snarl, loud enough only for Kikyou to hear.

She turned to him in surprise, a reprimand forming on her lips.

"Inuyasha, this is my cousin Naraku. Treat him with the same respect you would me… and then some." Kikyou said. Inuyasha only nodded, distancing himself from the man and Kikyou. He plopped himself down on the hill overlooking the village, and the fields in the distance. His knuckles holding him upright, he watched as Naraku placed a target on a distant tree, and handed Kikyou a bow and arrow. 

"Tsubaki-sama informed me that you were almost ready to begin your spiritual training in the art of the Bow."  
"Y-Yes. I have been looking forward to it for sometime now." Kikyou admitted, a shy blush on her cheek. Tsubaki-sama was more rough with Kikyou's desires than Naraku was; Kikyou had to be serious and firm at all times with Tsubaki, while Naraku seemed to have no trouble _embarrassing_ her…__

"Good. Try to hit the target."  
"T-That target… so far away?" Kikyou stuttered, her eyes widening in surprise. Inuyasha glanced at her and her 'Cousin' through his peripheral vision; indeed, the target was far away—too far away for any human archer to shoot. Feh. It'd be fun seeing the miko prove how full of herself she was, rather than how much she wasn't. 

"Just try." Naraku said in a demanding voice. Regaining her composure, Kikyou held the bow and arrow, fumbling with the placement of her fingers after a moment. She went through a brief and silent meditation to relax her senses, and to put the world around her out of existence. Gone was the irritating energy of Inuyasha, and the strange cold she felt breezing about Naraku. Ignorant of it all, Kikyou strung back the arrow, pulling the shaft back tightly in her hand…

And let it fly. Her eyes still closed, she didn't see the arrow spark and burst into flame with a gleaming purple light, hitting the target in the distance right on the bull's-eye… exploding the tree's center with a hiss. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

End of Part 3: Growing. 

I really planned on this having more to it than it did… I wanted to plan out specific dialogue chain-of-events, and cliffhangers… and it _sort of_ worked out how I wanted it to, but not totally. ^^ Does anyone like, still? ^^;; Maybe it's silly of me, but I'm hoping that by the time I get up to chapter 5, I can have at least 100 reviews… it'd be a first for me… ^^;;; 

I have all the chapters 4-11 plotted out already, and then some. So while I may not update on a daily basis, like some incredible writers, I will try to update at least twice a week. ^^ So please, review, let me know what you think… and of course, VISIT MY WEBSITE!

http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon

^^;; The Inuyasha section needs a new layout… is there anyplace that makes IY web gear? 

~Azurite


	4. Changing

**The Crest  
_Part 4:_ Changing  
An _Inuyasha Fanfiction   
_By:_ Azurite_**  
azurite_moon@yahoo.com  
http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon  


**Author's Notes: **

(1) As I ranted about in my last three chapters, I don't take flames. They are signed, stamped, sealed, and delivered "returned to sender." So be nice or say nothing. ^^;; 

(2) Also, I do not own Inuyasha. Keh. Feh. Or whatever. ^^ 

(3) Anyone who has read Ookami's "Turnabout is Fair Play" (and by anyone, I mean _everyone) is either wondering how in the heck my fic could have been inspired by it… so in answer to that… *grin* You'll see. It'll probably diverge so far off Ookami's tangent you won't even see it coming, but when you do get it, I think you'll laugh. _

(4) I know Tsubaki is a manga character in Volume 20, but in this, Tsubaki is a male councilman. I might end up bringing the other Tsubaki in later, but it's doubtful, since so few people read the Japanese manga like I do… ^^;;

**Request:**

I am looking to make a collection of sorts—quotes from bishounen and bishoujo alike. I originally got quotes from actual animes and mangas that said what a certain character thought of a certain subject. For example, Ranma Saotome on Sex would be: "Uh… doesn't it like mess up your training, or something?" [From the Ranma ½ OAV Series – ep. "The Two Akanes! Ranma, Look At Me!"] But now, I have collected funny quotes from signatures, fanfictions (^^; I'm kinda ashamed to admit it because it makes me look an über-otaku, and certainly a fangirl/stalker, but most of them are from "Turnabout is Fair Play," and more than one is from LilFoxGirl's "You Make Me Retch." ^^;;; Anyway, I'm looking to collect more quotes of this same kind—

1)   Signature quotes – funny, uplifting, inspiring, or just plain weird quotes from signature files.

2)   Bishies On… - quotes from your favorite bishoujo/bishounen on a subject of their choice—only a few lines to a paragraph at the most; as many topics as you wish… but the quoted material must be canon (i.e. from actual anime or manga, and please specify the episode/manga # / act # in question). 

3)   Fanfic Quotes – something that you read in a fanfic that was absolutely funny, incredibly angsty, or totally romantic. Be sure to quote the name of the fic, the author, and what chapter (if applicable) the quote can be found in. 

Domo arigatou, minna-sama!

**Vocabulary:**

I'm fairly sure I only use the most common terms, and considering the only 'dub' of Inuyasha that is out is the Viz Manga, well… here are some words:

**_hanyou_** – half-demon. Literally, a contraction of the word _hanyoukai_, with _han_ meaning 'half' and _youkai_ meaning 'demon'. Normally refers to any demon whose parentage is mixed between that of a full demon (a _youkai_) and a human.  
**_miko_** – priestess. Normally refers to a woman of the cloth (similar to a nun, but with more power) from the Shinto religion, like Kikyou, Kaede, etc. Shinto no miko are supposed to be able to detect unnatural energy (such as that of youkai) and purify them with their powers.  
**_taijiya_** – exterminator. Literally _taiji_ is 'to exterminate' and _ya_ implies a store or person who performs the action. Essentially, this means that a _taijiya_ is an exterminator. Usually refers to the exterminators of demons, though certain kinds of demon exterminators are not exactly _taijiya_. For example, Miroku… he's a Buddhist priest who expels demons… not exterminates them.   
**_houshi_** – Buddhist priest: like Miroku. At the time when Inuyasha takes place, Buddhism wasn't too common—but it was spreading, from where it originated in India to China, and then to Japan. Miroku is no doubt one of the people spreading the word about Buddhism, which emphasizes non-material possessions (explains why, aside from greed, Miroku always sells whatever he "steals" from the houses that he expels evil spirits from) and a life away from wealth.  
**_-sama_**, **_-chan_**, **_-dono_**, **_-san_** – Respectively, varying suffixes that one attaches to someone's name (usually the family name, or last name) to add respect. To not add a suffix implies (depending on the people) disrespect, or a very close relationship. Even brothers and sisters refer to each other with –san or –chan attached to their name. In Inuyasha, since it's 500 years before Kagome's time, many suffixes aren't in use, such as –san. That is why Kagome and Miroku respectively refer to each other as (insert name here)-sama. –Sama is a suffix that implies great respect to a person of power, which can include religious figures, monarchs, or government officials. –Chan, on the other hand, implies affection –either between friends or lovers. –Dono is a very old suffix, used in the same way –san is—it is interchangeable between girls and boys, and is usually used towards someone older than the speaker. It implies respect, or a lower position.  
**_hakama, haori_** – The first word is the bottom portion of a kimono robe, like what Inuyasha wears. It is also the same kind of pleated pants-dress that mikos (such as Kikyou and later, Kaede) wear. Haoris are the inner robe (usually white) that are worn underneath the overcoat.  

**Recap: **

A miko-to-be. A captured hanyou boy searching for the one human who doesn't fear him for what he is—or what he isn't. A wise elder who knows more than he's letting on. A young orphan girl who idolized her adopted sister. A devious councilman with a secret or two too many. A rigid religious Magistrate trying to keep a village of extremists and sympathizers in line. A war being fought on invisible fronts, and hundreds of races split up amongst themselves. Where will destiny take these people…?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Inuyasha and Naraku stared at the tree—smoldering with a purple smoke from the point where Kikyou's arrow hit it—and then at the girl. When she finally opened up her violet-blue eyes, she too stared at the arrow in amazement. It was a good ten meters from her position, and yet… and yet… there it was. 

What happened next amazed those present even more—for though the blackened tree looked to burn into ash any moment now, a bright light filled the region, extending as far as the grassy knoll where Inuyasha sat—and he was forced to shield his eyes with his sleeve, the light intense even for his sharp eyes. 

When all was calm once more, where a rotting, youkai infested tree had once been sat a tiny little sapling—the arrow gone from its bark, the purple smoke dissipated into the air. The last wisps of it curled into the clouds, vanishing from sight as if they'd never existed in the first place. 

"…Incredible, Kikyou-chan." Naraku commented, causing the young miko to blush slightly. She was still in awe of what she had done—Tsubaki had been so much more disciplinary with her, and yet she'd never excelled as far as this with his training… 

Yet one compliment from Naraku, and she was already shooting purity arrows! How was it possible…? Kikyou shook her head to rid herself of these pestering emotions—they only served to upset her balance, and that would lead to unwise actions. 

Yet… 

'I should not be questioning the ways of the Old Religion. I felt a strange presence from Naraku… my Extending capabilities are not as high as they could be. I must talk to Tsubaki as soon as possible.' 

"Feh." Inuyasha muttered, though he too was in awe. The girl wielded this much power…? If this was what happened when she shot a single arrow, what would happen if he upset her? The way he'd observed it, she had to be in absolute control of her emotions—and in fact, even when she wasn't, it made her all the more powerful. She'd been totally aware of the fact that she hadn't yet enchanted the rosary… so to incur her wrath in any way would be asking for certain death. 

However, it seemed as though his little remark went unnoticed—as Naraku and Kikyou continued to practice. Or rather, Kikyou continued to practice, eventually purifying every tree lining the Great Western Forest and the village hills, while Naraku watched her closely.

Inuyasha didn't like the man—councilman or not. He'd sensed –ever briefly- Kikyou's apprehension at seeing the man who quite obviously replaced her normal trainer. Inuyasha only knew Kikyou, her father, the idiotic servant in their house, and of course, the Hinos. All these other people—Elders and Trainers; Councilmen and Taijiya—were foreign to the thirteen-year-old hanyou. 

It was the youki swirling about the human that worried Inuyasha…

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The sky had darkened to a thick blue color, perfectly cloudless as the sun rose higher. It was at least a quarter of its trek through the sky by the time Inuyasha and Kikyou left the hillside—and Inuyasha couldn't be happier. His stomach was growling in loud protest to the fact that he hadn't been fed, and so he kept himself at least twenty paces ahead of the miko who was stroking the arrows in her quiver all too affectionately. 

"Inuyasha—matte!" Kikyou called, looking up every now and then, annoyed that the hanyou dared to run so far ahead of her. Was he trying to threaten her –that he could easily break her hold on him with a simple burst of speed? 

'Bah! Let the dog try!' Kikyou smirked, having spent all of the previous night giving thought to the enchantment she'd use on the rosary. Many times she'd seen similar devises used on humans who'd committed great crimes, but never on anyone of youkai blood before. Kikyou imagined that had the Hinos not taken the orphan hanyou in, Inuyasha would have remained "unchained," as it were. Or, another distinct possibility arose in her mind, he could be dead.

The very thought sickened Kikyou… and she couldn't figure out why. All these emotions she'd been having lately… perhaps the hanyou gave off some strange aura that forced her to _feel_ things. It wasn't normal—not for her, anyway. 

Children could act like children, as Kaede so often did, playing in the mud and tangling her hair. No one chastised her for it, because she was not the one destined by Tradition to be the miko. She was an orphan whose parents had been killed by youkai… merely living with the family of the future miko. 

It was sad, really. For many years, Kikyou had longed for a companion of sorts… a younger sister to care for. And in the recent past, she'd gotten that wish, but only when it didn't matter anymore. Kikyou had to lose herself—her youth, her childhood innocence—to duty and religion. But from that duty, she found herself bound to a strange half-boy, half-demon. It was very strange indeed. 

When Kikyou arose from her thoughts, Inuyasha was even farther ahead of her. Kikyou stopped, waiting for Inuyasha to look back—but he didn't. In fact, he just kept right on traipsing ahead—led by his stomach. Her right eye began to twitch with annoyance, for even after she called his name twice, he paid her no mind. 

Finally, Kikyou, in a moment of weakness, uttered the single word that had been on her mind since she awoke this morning. 

"HEEL!"

And with a bright, steaming pink glow, the rosary activated, the spell weaving its way through Inuyasha's aura, affixing itself to him and his soul. And within a moment, the hanyou who had been marching ahead of Kikyou stopped—and not of his own free will. In fact, he verily tipped forward, finding his feet inexplicably stuck. If he'd heard Kikyou, he made no point of it, thinking the heels of his feet stuck in *something*, rather than his body itself being stuck.

By this time, Kikyou caught up with the hanyou, a smirk on her face. Glad that her spell had actually worked as planned, she crossed her arms over her chest, daring to give Inuyasha a smug smile. 

"I asked you _politely_ to wait, you know." 

Inuyasha suddenly made the proper connections, and fury came over his face as he tugged on his legs, desperate to restore the feeling. Being unable to move as he was, it was being vulnerable all over again, and unwelcome images of dark youkai swarming upon him flashed through his vision. 

'Bah! I have no reason to be fearing youkai… after all, I want to become the greatest taiyoukai there ever was, and avenge my father's name…' 

But inside, a twinkle of doubt appeared, partially glad that she'd finally subdued him. The hanyou dared not prod this foolish consciousness inside of him further, for slight fear that it might overtake him, and make him weak. And weakness was simply _not_ tolerable. 

"You… you wench!" Inuyasha growled through his fangs. He could feel the force pulling his legs down to the Earth lessening, and he leaned forward with the anticipation of being able to scare the girl with all the youkai in him that he could muster. How DARE she—of all words, treating him like… like…!

'Aren't you a dog demon? Why would it shame you so to be compared to one?' That inner consciousness awoke with a clear voice, pointing out to Inuyasha what was already a blatantly obvious fact to him. Befuddled with his own mind turning on him, Inuyasha settled for silent growling—unaware that Kikyou had stopped, less that a meter in front of him, her eyes narrowed. 

She turned around to face Inuyasha, the tears that had dared to form at her lash line splashing down—if only slightly, and in anger. 

"You…" Kikyou stared down at her feet, clenching her fists until the knuckles were white. She would not stoop to his level! Calling her a wench… of ALL the nerve! In a cool voice that spoke volumes of Kikyou's true maturity, she whispered, soft enough only for Inuyasha to hear—"Heel." And the hanyou, who had thought himself free of the subduing spell—crashed into the ground, rolling down the hill like a loose pebble.

His face lay caked in a fresh pile of thick mud and straw, while Kikyou walked by, not smirking in any manner, but laughing. The tears fell down her face freely now, as she laughed out of joy and amusement… and though he was covered in dirt and mud, Inuyasha couldn't bring himself to be very angry. 

Only one thought ran through his mind—"D-Damn girl!" 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"You did not tell me that Kikyou-chan wielded such a fantastic power, Old Man." Naraku murmured as he stepped into the dim cave.

The dungeon where he kept the old Tsubaki prisoner was nothing more than a hollowed out cave underneath a hill—less that twenty meters from the village. It was far enough away from the fields that hardly any villagers wandered this way; close enough to the youkai perimeter that even the taijiya stayed away; but still close enough not to draw any attention to Naraku, should he be seen going to or returning from the place.

The old man was chained to the wall with old-fashioned bracers and shackles, rather than a spell that he would doubtless have no trouble breaking. He struggled with his bonds upon seeing Naraku re-enter, his face contorting with anger at what had been done to him. 

Naraku, fully aware that he was in complete control, slid easily up to the former councilman and removed the gag obstructing his mouth. He backed away enough to avoid a bite from the prisoner, chuckling as he did so.

"So the old goat still has some spitfire in him! Enjoying your new home, Tsubaki-sama?" Naraku asked with fake respect. 

"You fool! It is YOU who will be living out your days in misery here in this place!" Tsubaki spat out, his eyes narrowing. 

Naraku frowned, but then his lips broke into what could only be described as a demonic smile. 

"I don't think you understand the full scope of this situation, old man! It is you who are shackled to the wall, while *I* stand on the stage of the town, extending my influence over the people! All I do for them is for their own good…" Naraku chuckled. "And Kikyou-chan… my beloved cousin…"

At the mention of the young miko-to-be, Tsubaki struggled even harder in his bonds, fiercely yelling as loud as he could—"Do not play with her, Naraku! She is only a child, and doesn't deserve to have her innocence tampered by the likes of you!"

"Deserve…? Her innocence? Why, I think she's misled you all these years, Old man. After all, you saw what she did… saving that… _hanyou_ boy from death. A pathetic excuse for a being, and she spared him… when she could have demolished him with one blow…" Naraku turned once more, sliding close to Tsubaki and patting his cheek with a gloved hand. 

"You didn't tell me she was so advanced in the Higher Spirits. She will be of great use to me… my Kikyou-chan…" Naraku laughed as he walked out of the cave, snuffing the candle with his fingers as he went. Tsubaki continued to struggle with his bonds futilely, yelling even as Naraku left the cave.

"NARAKU!!!!!!" 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Meanwhile, Kikyou and Inuyasha had returned to the House of the Magistrate to attend to their morning meal. Inuyasha ate like the dog he was named after, using all of his youkai speed and strength to empty rice bowl after rice bowl. At first, Kikyou found it amusing, but that amusement quickly faded into disgust, and even surprise as he continued to wolf down much of that morning's rice helpings.

Annoyed, Kikyou lifted her rice to her lips, her eyes closed in a moment of serene calm, and muttered under her breath, "Heel." All of a sudden, the hanyou fell backwards, his feet rooted to the floor like stone statues. He cast an angry glare at Kikyou, but knowing now that to anger her more would make the spell last longer, he kept silent. He started to eat slowly, to a point where Kikyou no longer was staring at him in disgust, and finally, the feeling in his legs returned.

Swallowing a particularly sticky lump of rice, Inuyasha settled back on his haunches, adopting a kneeling position as Kikyou did. He cast several slight glances at Kikyou to mock her position, unaware that both she and her father noticed his copycat moves. Kikyou found herself smiling at the hanyou, though he didn't see her expression as he kept his face to his bowl, and in turn, the Magistrate eyed Kikyou. He let a small smile of his own creep across his aged face, and he resumed eating. 

But an hour later, when both Kikyou and Inuyasha were suitably filled and refreshed, they went out to the village, wandering around. It was more than a bit strange, what with all the village people staring and talking in hushed tones. 

_There goes the village miko with a hanyou! What was she thinking, saving a demon like that?_

_What does Kikyou-sama think she is doing, parading around with a dog like that? That mutt should be kept in a prison!_

Inuyasha's finely tuned ears caught all of these secret conversations, the fur-covered appendages turning left and right as people swarmed around them. They didn't seem to have any particular destination, and Inuyasha quickly tired of all the chatter.

'It's hopeless. I instill fear and hatred in all those I meet… or all those that even see me.' Inuyasha would have sighed, had he known how, but instead followed Kikyou with a quiet obedience. People talked about her too, questioning her methods and ideals. Some thought she was too young and immature to be filling such a high ranking position as village miko, while others thought it was simply wrong to have a child's opinion sway the results of a Determination. She too, Inuyasha realized, was a bit of an outcast.

"Oi." Inuyasha murmured, walking up closer behind the girl. 

"What?" Kikyou said softly, her eyes not shifting to Inuyasha's at all. The hanyou was irked for a moment, but soon brushed it off, noticing that she had her head lightly cocked to the side—she too, was listening to the conversations of the people around them. 

"Can we go somewhere… quieter?" Inuyasha flattened his ears as a particularly noisy child ran by them, screaming about a demon chasing him. Of course, it was really just the child's friends, playing a simple game of tag… 

"I would be much appreciative." Kikyou murmured, her hands lifting to her head as if trying to ward off a potential headache. 

The two soon found themselves up on the same grassy knoll as earlier, overlooking the morning hustle and bustle of the village in quiet contemplation. Finally, Inuyasha broke the silence. 

"What happened to the old man?" 

Kikyou looked at him, surprised—he knew of Tsubaki? 

"…Tsubaki-sama… he… I do not know what has become of him. I find it troubling that Naraku has so readily replaced him… I would have thought to have heard from my old master at least once before he went into retirement…" 

"Do you honestly believe that guy?" Inuyasha snorted, casting a sidelong glance at the miko. She'd drawn her knees up to her chest and was resting her chin on them, staring off into the sky with a faint nostalgia in her eyes.

"Cousin Naraku? Well…" Kikyou was silent. Could she truly voice the doubt in her that rose whenever she saw him? That sickening feeling, almost choking –constricting, all around her—when he looked at her? The bile that rose in her throat at his touch… how could she explain that all to… Inuyasha, of all beings. What would he understand?

"He stinks of _youki_." Inuyasha grunted, barely turning his head. Kikyou stared at the hanyou in amazement—they had Extending powers as well? Or perhaps it wasn't a facet of Inuyasha's youkai side… but rather… his human one? 

And then, that same curiosity that had blossomed in Kikyou when she first saw him emerged once more. Why had Inuyasha been injured when the Hinos found him? How long had he been orphaned, and who had killed his parents? Why? If he was a hanyou, then just who was his mother? Was she anyone of significance, or just a human that the Dog Clan's taiyoukai kidnapped and raped? It didn't seem that way, in any case. Yet, Inuyasha was far too complex for a simple hanyou child…

"Youki…?" Kikyou asked, wondering what it meant. She'd learned about the ki one had in her body, and the energy that all living beings gave off—an aura of sorts, to distinguish one from another. Likewise, non-living things gave forth a sort of energy of their own, making them distinctly different from all the creatures around them. 

"The energy of youkai—demons. He has it all around him," Inuyasha gestured broadly with his arms, "Wrapping him like… like a cloud, or something." 

"…" Kikyou pursed her lips in silence. She'd noticed the cloud of energy around her cousin as well… in fact, it seemed just as Inuyasha described it… and the thought that her cousin, and now her mentor, could at all be affiliated with… youkai…

'And what of yourself? Your very job is to deal with youkai. You are not a taijiya, but you must purify the souls of those who are tainted with evil. Though… Naraku doesn't seemed tainted at all… the energy surrounding him _is_ his own!' 

"…I do not know what to make of this… I feel… I felt something similar to you, Inuyasha, yet… different." 

"…How can you sense such energy anyway? You're just a child yourself… not of any youkai blood…" Inuyasha trailed off, his golden eyes shifting over Kikyou's form, as if searching for some telltale reason why she should be able to sense the energy and presence of others. 

"It is a technique my former master taught me… called 'Extending.'"

There was silence for a moment, and the only noise seemed to be coming from the throngs of people moving out of the village and into the fields to work for the day. 

"Do you think, perhaps… you could teach me?" Inuyasha asked, his gaze not drifting from the people of the town.

Kikyou stared at the boy in surprise.   
"It is quite obvious you can already sense such things. Why would you need any help from me?"   
Inuyasha shook his head.   
"I know what little my mother taught me when I was a pup." Kikyou smiled at the strange term the hanyou applied to himself, but with his fuzzy dog-ears, the term certainly fit. She felt the strange need to touch them, just to ensure that they were real, if even for a moment. But before she could make such a move, she stopped herself, chastising herself mentally for even entertaining such a thought. 

To tell the truth, Kikyou practically swelled with pride at someone wanting to learn something from her. Most people avoided her, daring only to speak when she spoke to them, or when they were in dire need of assistance. She was just a figurehead, to be used and used again. She could never make friends, or gain any real respect from the villagers. It was only worship…

It might have been taboo to teach the Extending Arts to someone with demon blood… but…

'If we both sense correctly, then perhaps Naraku is the one with demon blood mixed in him. I do not know what happened to my beloved cousin during the years he was gone, but he is not the same. And I will not stop training on my own until I find out just what he has become.' 

It was at that moment that Kikyou realized she was changing. She had passed the limits of her father's teachings, of Tsubaki's teachings, and would develop her own methods of finding that equilibrium within herself. And from there… who knows what she would do?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It was three days later when Kikyou was called to a village nearby. It was to be her first "official" act as a miko, not just in training, but ascending to a more respectable (or so her father said) position within the village. 

Kikyou kept silent about the whereabouts of Tsubaki—she was worried for the old man she'd come to love as a grandfather, but since no one else mentioned her former teacher's disappearance, Kikyou and Inuyasha both concluded that Naraku had something to do with it. How could it be that they were the only ones who remembered Tsubaki? 

Kikyou knew, just as well as Inuyasha, that there were certain things that, in the hands of anyone sinister or evil-hearted, would do much harm to the innocent civilians of the village. They could not confirm any suspicions they had of Naraku, but to act upon instinct was to leap headlong into fire, and so they kept quiet. 

Perhaps things would reveal themselves.

But this unexpected turn of events left the pair in confusion; for the first time, Inuyasha would be unguarded, as it were, since all the council members were too busy dealing with other matters; the taijiya would have nothing to do with Inuyasha, and the Hinos were far too busy working in the fields. Inuyasha gladly would have returned to the fields to assist his former surrogate parents, but the Magistrate warned him that many of the villagers still feared him—and, out of simple respect of that fear, Inuyasha remained on the outskirts of the village, resting in an over-sized tree with many large branches to rest upon. 

There he lay, the hours going by uncounted. He idly wondered how long it would take Kikyou to return, and if she was totally safe in the village she was going to. But he quickly reminded himself that no matter how thin-skinned and weak she may be—as both a girl and a human—she had the ability to purify anything dangerous to her. Provided her aim was true, she would be well protected.

'Feh. As if I need to show any concern for that wench anyway.' Inuyasha opened one eye, glancing over the knoll where the road led. She'd disappeared down that path so long ago… the sun had trekked across the sky nearly three quarters since she left. When was that girl coming back, anyway?

"…a youkai exterminated in the village not far from here!"  
"Truly, something of that power? Inside a youkai? Such a thing would be dangerous in these parts."

Inuyasha heard snippets of the conversation of two passing villagers, coming from over the road. His ears twitched, honing in on the sounds, even as the men came closer. 

"That is certainly true, what with all the youkai roamin' the forest. I don't care _what_ they say, that Kikyou is just a whelp, and certainly doesn't reassure me any from a demon attack. They say they're building up from the East—a whole bunch of wolf tribes out to claim the forests here as their own."  
"Aye, something along those lines happened not seven years ago, if I remember correctly… but when that great burst of power came from that village off to the East, they all scampered away."  
"True, the youkai be fearin' the humans now! But if they should get something such as the Shikon no Tama into their possessions…" The old man clicked his tongue while shaking his head.  
"Just what would it do now? You say a demon who swallowed the jewel whole was killed… ain't that jewel supposed to make a youkai all powerful or something?"

"That it is… but I suppose it depends on how the demon uses it. Now I hear the folks are keeping it safeguarded until they can figure out what to do with it."   
"Aye, it's safest there, you know? A whole bunch of taijiya guardin' something of that magnitude," The old man's companion clicked his tongue, "Much safer in their hands…" 

The conversation died there. Inuyasha twitched. The Shikon no Tama, eh?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

End of Chapter 4: Changing

Well, I got the parts I wanted to in! Chapter 5 and 6 are the BIG ONES, so they'll probably be over 11 pages (this one is 10, the last couple have been 8 or 9, and the first one was 11). I'll try to put them out together within the next week, so look forward to it, okay!

Does anyone like, still? ^^;; Maybe it's silly of me, but I'm hoping that by the time I get up to chapter 5, I can have at least 100 reviews… it'd be a first for me… ^^;;; 

I have all the chapters 5-11 plotted out already, and then some. So, while I may not update on a daily basis, like some incredible writers, I will try to update at least twice a week. ^^ So please, review, let me know what you think… and of course, VISIT MY WEBSITE!

http://www.geocities.com/azurite_moon ß just updated the Inuyasha section!

~Azurite


End file.
